Meadville man's search for parents takes off on Facebook

By SEAN McCRACKENsean.mccracken@timesnews.com

April 2, 2013 12:01 AM

By SEAN McCRACKENsean.mccracken@timesnews.com

April 2, 2013 12:01 AM

This is an undated contributed photo of Kevin Sullivan, 40, of Meadville, who posted this photo to Facebook on Feb. 24, in hopes of finding information that will lead him to his birth parents. The photo has since been shared over 230,000 times.CONTRIBUTED/ERIE TIMES-NEWS

Kevin Sullivan wasn't sure what to expect when he posted a plea for help in finding his birthparents on Facebook.

Sullivan, a Meadville resident who was born and raised in Erie, was hoping enough people would see the photo with his name and contact information and reach out with useful information on who his parents are and how he might find them.

But he never expected that his photo would end up being seen and shared by hundreds of thousands of people on the social network.

"I did it a month ago, and I got nothing," Sullivan said. "Then it just blew up on Tuesday night. I don't know why."

Sullivan posted a photo of himself holding a sign that reads "My name is Kevin Sullivan. I was born on April 20th, 1972 at St. Vincent Hospital in Erie, PA. I am looking for my birthparents." It also includes a phone number to call and a request for people to like and share the photo with their Facebook friends.

As of Monday, that photo had slightly more than 22,000 likes, more than 5,800 comments and had been shared about 246,000 times. Sullivan said it seemed the photo was being shared by people across the county and even in the United Kingdom.

"It started with just getting friend requests," Sullivan said. "I normally get one or two at a time, but all of a sudden I had like 20 at once. Then my phone started ringing."

Although he only posted it on Facebook, the photo seems to have taken on a life of its own and has shown up on other social networks and websites, like Reddit.

Sullivan said he was inspired to look for his biological parents for a few different reasons, including the fact that he now has two children of his own. He said he wanted to find them both for practical reasons -- like establishing his family's medical history -- and to get in touch with where he comes from.

"I've wondered about them all my life," he said. "So, after I turned 40 last year, I just decided that now was the time to find them."

After his birthparents put Sullivan up for adoption, he was briefly kept in foster care and went by the name "Troy."

Shortly after that, he was adopted by Michael and Cheryl Sullivan, of Millcreek Township. Both of Sullivan's adoptive parents died when he was a teenager.

He said his adoptive parents were always open about the fact he was adopted and supported the idea of him eventually tracking down his birthparents. So he doesn't believe his adoptive family had any information they didn't share about his biological parents.

Because of that, Sullivan didn't have much information to work from after deciding to find his birthparents. He said he'd seen people use social media to track down siblings or other family members, so he decided he could try the same thing.

"With social media as big as it is now, I figured I should just give it a shot," Sullivan said.

So far Sullivan has had mixed results in his attempts to reconnect with his birthparents.

No one has come forward with solid evidence of who or where those parents might be. And the fact that he included two personal phone numbers in the photo has led to some prank phone calls.

"That's expected when you put it out there," Sullivan said.

But it's also led to people around the world to wish him well in his search, and has led some who were in similar situations to volunteer advice.

Sullivan said he plans to soon act on some of that advice by requesting an original birth certificate from Saint Vincent Health Center.

He said his next step will be to make other records requests suggested by the people who responded to his Facebook photo.

SEAN McCRACKEN can be reached at 870-1714 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNmccracken.